


Ride

by cinnamon_skull



Series: Born to Die [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Age Reversal, Eventual Relationships, Hot older brother!Eren, M/M, Pining, Recreational Drug Use, Slow Burn, Tattoos, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 14:09:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5931220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinnamon_skull/pseuds/cinnamon_skull
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren gets a tattoo. Levi helps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ride

**Author's Note:**

> For this who might not know, HotOlderBrother!Eren is about four years older than Levi. He's Izzy's brother and Levi has had a crush on him since he knew what the word crush meant. Let the PINING commence. 
> 
> Tumblr prompt: Would Hot older brother Eren have any tattoos?
> 
> Short answer - yes. Long answer - see below.

Levi woke up confused, his legs twisted in sheets and his neck aching from the way he’d fallen asleep against one of Izzy’s pillows. She was sleeping next to him, her breath even and quiet in the dark room, and her wild red hair looked like flames against the white pillowcase. She had always been fire, wild and untamable, and her temper had gotten her into some hot water over the years. 

But she was Levi's best friend. 

After listening for any signs of having woke her, Levi eased the sheets off his legs and stood, careful not to trip over her heels or step on a stray nail polish bottle as he made his way out of her room. He spent more time in her room than his own house, especially during the summer.

The house was dim and silent, and Levi thought perhaps he and Izzy had been quiet enough not to alert her parents just how late they’d gotten home from the party. Farlan had hosted another bonfire in the woods behind his house, close enough to the lake that a group of them had all gone swimming in the dark. Even to Levi, who hated the thought of what might lay beneath the surface, the water had looked velvety and welcoming underneath a half-moon, cloudless sky.

"This is a night we're going to remember," Izzy had said, breathing warm clouds into the air with her words.

 _Maybe,_ Levi had thought. Her words hadn't stopped him from splashing her and telling her to stop being so dramatic. 

A pleasant warmth was still buzzing through Levi’s veins as he made his way down to the kitchen, navigating Izzy’s house with ease. A bottle of water would save him a headache in the morning, and he’d grab some aspirin while he was down there. Izzy would surely need it when she woke for the amount of tequila she had consumed.

The wood floors felt cold against Levi’s bare feet, despite the summer heat. It was distracting enough that he didn’t noticed the kitchen lights were on or the soft rustling emanating from the room until he was already halfway inside.

“Oh,” Levi said quietly, skidding to a halt. _No_ , his voice did not just squeak.

Izzy’s older brother whipped his head up to stare at Levi. Once he realized who it was, his shoulders relaxed, and he turned back to what he’d been doing when Levi walked in.

He hadn’t seen Eren Jaeger in a few weeks—no one had. But that was pretty par for the course when it came to Eren. He went to college two hours away and usually couch surfed all summer, and Levi spent too many hours filling up his mind with thoughts of his mysterious adventures.

Was he road tripping to California like he'd talked about when they were young? Had he gone to the music festival he'd told Izzy about? Where was he sleeping, who was he seeing? 

Wherever he went, whoever he saw, did he think of Levi?

Eren looked to be struggling with something, his arms and torso twisted and his head bent at a painful-looking angle.

“Are you okay?” Levi asked quietly from the doorway.

Eren looked up and leveled him with a hard, considering look.

“You have hands,” he observed, tilting his head a little to the left. 

It was a bizarre enough statement that Levi’s belly gave a sharp tug. “Umm, yes, but—”

The other boy cut him off with a lazy wave of his hand. “Come here, please. “

Levi approached the marble island at the center of the kitchen as he would a wild animal, which seemed to amuse Eren.

“I don’t bite, Levi,” he said with a wolfish grin that left him entirely unconvinced and stumbling over his feet.

“I haven’t seen you in a while.” Levi stood at the edge of the table, placing it between them as he surveyed Izzy’s brother. Eren didn’t look drunk or high or anything other than his usual brand of unhurried insolence, which reminded Levi that Eren only ever did exactly what he wanted.

“Did you miss me?” Eren was still studying him with those dark, intense eyes.

Levi shrugged his shoulders, unable to discern if the other boy was being serious or not. He remembered then, that he was only wearing a pair of thin, ratty sweatpants and a faded T-shirt, and Eren was still fully dressed in jeans and an unzipped hoodie.

“Well that was convincing,” Eren teased in a low voice.

The thing about Eren was that he knew how he looked and sounded, and the exact kind of vibe he gave off, and Levi was very, very tired. “What do you want, Eren?”

“Can you keep a secret, Levi?” Eren seemed to be in too playful a mood to allow Levi’s sullenness to wear him down.

“Obviously,” Levi snorted. Growing up, he always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when it came to Eren and all of his bad decisions. It had been that way since they were very young.

Eren gave him a real smile then, one that lit up his green eyes and made him look younger. It also made Levi feel a bit like a lit match, bright and burning up far too quickly.

“Well, okay then,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “Come over here.”

“Over there?” Levi repeated dumbly.

Eren nodded in that lazy way of his.

As Levi slowly approached, Eren pulled a small bottle from the counter. He tossed it to Levi at the same time he stood up, which made him scramble a bit to catch it. When he looked up, Eren had already shrugged off his hoodie and was working on pulling his T-shirt over his head.

“What are you doing—”

“Relax,” Eren said, tossing him a half grin over his shoulder. “I just need you to help with this.”

Levi closed his mouth. There was a clear bandage extending down the length of Eren’s spine, which did little to hide the ink etched into his skin.

“You got a tattoo?” Levi breathed.

“Hurt like a motherfucker,” Eren admitted. “But it was worth every second of pain.”

“Oh.”

Eren sat back on the kitchen stool, leaning his elbows on the table with his back to Levi. “Help me change the bandage?”

Levi crept closer, excited to have a minute to study the tattoo without Eren looking at him. The design was simple and beautiful—the silhouette of a slim pine extending from the center of his shoulders to the base of his spine. There was a frailty to the piece that Levi liked, as well as a haunting kind of solitude that made his chest ache just a little.

“What does it mean?” he asked softly, peeling back the wrap.

Eren hissed as his sore skin was exposed to the air. “Haven’t you ever taken a literature class? Is Shadis going soft in his old age?”

Levi smiled, despite the fact that Eren hadn’t really given him an answer. “He’s tough, but fair.”

Eren grunted as Levi peeled the last of it off. “Can you put some more salve on before you put a new one on?”

Levi’s hands only shook a little as he rubbed slicked fingers over Eren’s tattoo, feeling the way Eren’s muscles twitched under his touch.

“Done,” Levi said, licking his lips.

Eren twisted his head so that only the side of his face was visible over his shoulder. “Are you, Levi?”

Levi swallowed. “Am I what?”

“Done?”

The word was quiet and soft in the dim room, almost like a voice lost on the wind among a forest of tall pines.

 


End file.
